INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS; China in No Hurry to Reopen Talks on Joining Trade Group

By ERIK ECKHOLM

Published: July 1, 1999

BEIJING, June 30—
In public statements and private signals, China has indicated that it will not resume talks with the United States any time soon over its proposed entry into the World Trade Organization.

''The talks are certainly moribund,'' said the departing American Ambassador, James Sasser, in an interview in Beijing today, his last day on the job.

''But I wouldn't say it's reached the stage of a total cadaver,'' said Mr. Sasser, who has met in recent days with the top Chinese leaders, and predicted that relations would improve this fall. At an Asia-Pacific economic meeting this week in New Zealand, the deputy United States trade representative, Richard Fisher, said the United States was ready to restart the talks and that ''the ball's in China's court.''

But a top Chinese trade official at the same meeting, Long Yongtu, responded today that China would not enter negotiations until it received a ''convincing explanation'' for the deadly bombing in May of its Embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.

Earlier in June, a senior American diplomat came to Beijing to offer a detailed description of what went wrong in the air attack, which killed three Chinese. But China rejected the explanation as implausible.

So the condition laid out by Mr. Long seems to have put the trade negotiations on ice for now -- even though the Chinese have said for years that rapid entry into the world body, which sets rules for trade and market access, was a priority.

The two countries have not held talks on China's entry into the trade organization since April, when Prime Minister Zhu Rongji visited Washington and offered many of the market-opening measures demanded by the West. Fearing Congressional opposition, President Clinton did not conclude a deal at the time.

Talks had been expected to resume within weeks, and both sides had said they hoped to reach agreement this year. Then the embassy bombing chilled relations. But China said it wanted to continue normal economic ties, and the Americans have waited ever since for an invitation to resume discussions.

Mr. Zhu, an advocate of entry into the World Trade Organization, has been subjected to growing criticism by ministries and industries that feel they would be harmed by a rapid opening of markets.

For status as well as economics, China has for years said it wanted to enter the trade group, and charged that Western countries were imposing unduly strict conditions for entry.

Today, Mr. Long reiterated China's intention to join. But his political condition for talks, along with other recent signals here, suggests that the Chinese Government may be more divided than in the past over rapid entry -- perhaps even preferring to put off talks while blaming American intransigence.

''I think they've decided it's no big deal for them right now,'' Mr. Sasser said today.

Mr. Sasser, a former Democratic Senator from Tennessee, is moving to Washington, where, he said, he hopes he can help the Presidential bid of his old friend Al Gore. President Clinton has selected retired Admiral Joseph W. Prueher, former Commander of Pacific Forces, as the next Ambassador, but his nomination is subject to Senate confirmation.